Do you count cleaning as exercise?

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  • ereck44
    ereck44 Posts: 1,170 Member
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    Cleaning, no! Mowing grass or shoveling snow, yes! If it is not part of my daily activity, I log it.
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    d hauling fallen trees or branches, and other periodic "heavy" jobs like that, I will wear my HRM and log it. A couple months ago, I helped a friend tear down his deck using a sledgehammer for a few hours and I burned over 1,200 calories!

    Probably not unless you were on a run the whole time. A HRM is only accurate for steady state cardio. You need to have your HR significantly raised for an extended period of time for it to work properly. Otherwise you get exaggerated burns.
  • LeslieN65
    LeslieN65 Posts: 127 Member
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    I log it if it is more than my daily cleaning/picking up....:wink:
  • Sovictorrious
    Sovictorrious Posts: 770 Member
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    Only when done in my underwear.
  • xombiebite
    xombiebite Posts: 273 Member
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    what is this cleaning you speak of
  • sunfirelynn
    sunfirelynn Posts: 186 Member
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    I don't log cleaning , that is a every day thing to me I wouldn't feel right to log it:ohwell:
  • jeremyw1977
    jeremyw1977 Posts: 505 Member
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    Unless I am cleaning inside a sauna, with wrist and ankle weights, and with a weighted mop/vacuum/duster...........no!
    While I'm at it, I'm also going to log the calories I burn to walk to the bathroom, squat, and bear down.
  • xombiebite
    xombiebite Posts: 273 Member
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    Unless I am cleaning inside a sauna, with wrist and ankle weights, and with a weighted mop/vacuum/duster...........no!
    While I'm at it, I'm also going to log the calories I burn to walk to the bathroom, squat, and bear down.

    that could be a serious squat and log (hahahaha) you some serious calories!!!
    ps doctor who is the ****:drinker:
  • EvaW36
    EvaW36 Posts: 7
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    I sure do count cleaning as exercise. I have this little game a call "beat the clock". I set my timer to a certain amount of time. I then clean as fast as I can in order to get as much done as I can within the amount of time I choose. I end up braking a sweat during my cleaning session. Now if I'm just unloading/loading the dishwasher or folding clothes I won't count that. Things like vcuming, sweeping, mopping and such like these I will count.:wink:
  • EvaW36
    EvaW36 Posts: 7
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    i would not dream of counting cleaning or sex ....



    sex can be a fun way to burn those calories!
  • alisonlynn1976
    alisonlynn1976 Posts: 929 Member
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    I don't consider things that I would do anyway as a part of my day as exercise. Yes, any movement burns calories, but isn't that the point of selecting a baseline of lightly active, etc.? I tried to explain this on another thread about walking, where I said that I have always walked every day, so that's just a part of my baseline and I have to do something else if I want to add exercise, and people criticized me because they thought I was saying that walking isn't exercise (and then someone declared that I'm fat because I eat too much, which, yeah, thanks for the insight), but that's not what I meant. Cleaning is exercise, walking is exercise, sex is exercise, etc., but if you were doing that stuff before and you want to *increase* your level of calories burned, you need to add something to your baseline.
  • Lisah8969
    Lisah8969 Posts: 1,247 Member
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    I apparently don't clean as much as everyone on here! LOL! Cleaning is not a daily thing for me, but I would still never log it and since I am using TDEE method and not giving myself calories burned for exercise it doesn't really matter.

    But for those of you who do log it and want to get in an additional workout, I will let you know where I keep the spare key and the cleaning supplies and you can let yourself in and burn as many calories as you would like! :drinker: Thanks!
  • explosivedonut
    explosivedonut Posts: 419 Member
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    Cleaning is my super-secret tech for getting shredded. Barbell squats? Deadlifts? Bench presses? Running? Who needs that crap when I have the might of Swiffer and Dyson behind me! /s

    Listen, 90% of us are on here cause we are or were fat. If we got fat doing it, what makes you think you will get skinny doing it? If you do log it (which you shouldn't) you certainly shouldn't eat back the calories. You are just making excuses for yourself so you can eat more, and that will destroy your progress.
  • ctodd58
    ctodd58 Posts: 7 Member
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    If you clean frequently (like 20-30 minutes daily), I'd just bump your baseline activity level up and take care of it that way, rather than logging every time you clean.
  • Morgaath
    Morgaath Posts: 679 Member
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    Listen, 90% of us are on here cause we are or were fat. If we got fat doing it, what makes you think you will get skinny doing it? If you do log it (which you shouldn't) you certainly shouldn't eat back the calories. You are just making excuses for yourself so you can eat more, and that will destroy your progress.

    Just going out on a limb here, but I am going to guess that 90% got fat while eating everything in sight.
    Pre-MFP: Doing a quick 15 minute light cleaning of the house (54cals), and then rewarding myself with a Big Mac, large Fry, and large non-diet soda (1000+cals), for a gain of 950+cals
    And Now: Doing the same housework, and rewarding myself with a Diet Coke, for a gain of -54cals.
    Which version do you think fits the folks using this site?

    Now of course, if that person had done what I think of as spring cleaning (Move every piece of furniture, sweep and mop under it, put coat of wax down on the floor, etc) resulting in you sweating and feeling it the next day... well that is going to get you a lot more of a calorie burn.

    But even that quick light cleaning burns more calories than sitting here on my computer.
  • bettysmith5
    bettysmith5 Posts: 2
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    I do because being 300 lbs I sweat a lot and I feel it. Also I believe that everything we do burns calls. But I don't eat more.


    Usyouandme2010@comcast
  • Ely82010
    Ely82010 Posts: 1,998 Member
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    I just spent the last hour cleaning and according to MFP, I burned 232 calories. It kind of feels like cheating to log it, since it's not really exercise. But, I already worked out for 75 minutes today, so it's not like I replaced a real workout with cleaning... Should I log it? Do you?

    No, I don't log any cleaning as exercise not matter how much I sweat. I do log or count gardening because it is something that I don't do very often. Although I don't log all the calories that MFP gives me
  • icimani
    icimani Posts: 1,454 Member
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    Nope.

    I only count what I call "intentional" exercise. But if it's something that you don't normally do then I say go for it!
  • phjorg1
    phjorg1 Posts: 642 Member
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    ITT: overweight people thinking cleaning is exercise and fit people saying it's not.

    Your results are the byproduct of what you put in. Wanna count cleaning as exercise, all the power to you. But you will have the results of someone who counts cleaning as exercise...
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
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    If you're talking about "cleaning" in terms of the Olympic lift, then yes I count cleans as an exercise. However the concept of tracking "calorie burn" through an inaccurate measuring device (the HRM) is rather ridiculous to me, so no I don't track exercise calories period. If you're talking about house-work as exercise... Then I would have to ask how serious are you about working towards your goals if you're going to count house work as exercise.

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